5 Top College Towns to Invest In

College towns and cities often offer a lot of charm and excitement as they strive to cater to the young adult crowd, but not every family wants to live right outside a campus.

Rob Franek, senior vice president of the Princeton Review, says parents or families considering purchasing a first or second home in a college town should keep two key factors in mind when weighing this decision. “Think, would you want to raise a family there? And would you want to retire there?” Franek says. “There is certainly a value that goes along with owning a second home, but it can get expensive in some college towns.”

Franek travels nationwide speaking at and researching colleges and provided the following picks for the best college towns for real estate investments. Below are his picks along with pricing data from Zillow:

2Tampa, Orlando Corridor

Average home price in Lakeland metro area, between Tampa and Orlando: $106,900

Franek says this area is home to Florida Southern University, the University of Central Florida and University of Tampa, and while the size of the schools vary they are all working to make the community around them an extension of the school.

3Baltimore

Johns Hopkins University is a huge draw here, says Franek, and makes the city a worthwhile investment.

“Johns Hopkins is right in the middle of the city. Hopkins sees Baltimore as an extension of its campus, and the city sees the campus as an extension of Baltimore,” he says. “Students and community are profiting from this.”

4Phoenix

Franek mentions Arizona State University makes this area a draw, among other downtown universities.

“ASU’s President Michael Crow has been building out the university and it is an urban campus,” he says. “Phoenix is a destination spot, so it has a nontraditional population. And if you live there and want to go in and take a class at ASU, that is a great resource.”